Bluegrass Fever

I got a mandolin for Christmas! And if that’s not a random gift, I don’t know what is! No actually I’ve wanted one for awhile but it was totally a surprise. Christmas was wonderful and low-key. The snow cover left much to be desired but I had a relaxing few days off. Now I’m headed on a road trip to New York City for New Year’s with a very good friend. More to follow.

My Birthday and Christmas

My birthday was on Saturday, and it was perfect. I had to work in the morning at the gym and afterwards I went home to my parent's house in Fairport and opened gifts. I got some pretty yarn for knitting, and (drumroll please) RUNNING SNOWSHOES!!! So of course I had to go try them out. My dad and I went to Indian hill and did a short hike. They work great and I can't wait to do workouts in them. I couldn't believe how high I could get my heart rate running up those hills. Perfect, because I needed another hobby.

Today I went to Indian Hill again (gorgeous) and then church with my family.

Tomorrow is a low-key Christmas, which will hopefully include skiing, weather permitting.

HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!

www.emilywright.org

I finally have a website. This will hopefully aid me in the future with any sort of sponsorship opportunities I may seek... for now it's more of a fun project. I've been working on it for months, and (I think) it's finally functional and pretty enough to unveil. Enjoy!!

the website

the blog

Inconsequential Update

So finals are over and I hardly know what to do with myself. It's a great feeling. Yesterday afternoon I skied for a good while at MPP and then went straight over to the red barn at RIT for a few hours of climbing with Tim, Bryan, Drew, and Joel. I am exhausted. But--winter break!! So what the hell? I let myself sleep in until 8am this morning and then sat around in my pajamas til noon doing work on my computer.

I went to Wegmans this afternoon, which is always fabulous. I don't know what got into me, but I left with a cart filled with no less than 10 kinds of vegetables: carrots, celery, green beans, broccoli, radishes, lettuce, a pepper, a cucumber, grape tomatoes, and an onion. Weird.

I'm headed out to lift weights now, and afterwards I need to finish getting/making/wrapping my Christmas presents. Mostly just wrapping, though... because I am totally on top of things. Even though I can't believe Christmas is in 6 days (not to mention my birthday even sooner!)

More interesting/ridiculous adventure posts are soon to follow. It's winter break!!!!

Global warming?

It's global storming baby!! This snowstorm has been incredible. I don't remember it snowing so much since the winter of 2002-2003. It's fabulous. There's so much snow, that the skiing sucks!! Because nobody grooms!! It's a beautiful thing.

There are other things about which to be excited besides the snowstorm: the first world cup win EVER by a female American cross-country skier!! This is a big deal; now the excitement of Kikkan's success is filtering down to the rest of us. (or at least to me!) Average nor-dorks, ex-high-school skiing superstars, and fasterskier junkies across the country are excited for her, excited for the US ski team, excited to get out there and be a tiny part of it. It's very motivating to have a confirmation of success in The Process. Yes, it is working. Now we can enjoy a glimmer of hope that our own skiing careers will parallel Kikkan's: hard work+ years of dedication = reaching your goals. Patience, grasshopper.

I'm going to do a fairly heavy load this week, and see if I can't transpose some of the kayak team's workouts onto my skis. But that's not until tomorrow at 2:30, when I walk out of my statistics final as a free woman. I need to study. I'm going to grab some coffee and snowshoe up to the conservatory and do my work in the greenhouse!!


Happy skiing.

snowstorm!

Well, almost. Eight inches of snow fell today and more is coming. Today was my last day of classes (of my first semester of college!) I have two finals on Tuesday (physics and statistics) and then I will be free to do Whatever I Want for 5 weeks. I can't wait. I'm imagining all the possible scenarios: Florida, California, Ottowa, heck, why stop there, how about Europe, New Zeland, the moon... but more realistically, Lake Placid, and Salmon Hills. I would like to ski as much as possible, and I'm itching for a roadtrip. Gosh, that sounds like the recipe for perfection.

Yesterday night, before all this snow fell, I skied at the brand new Bristol Mountain Summit Nordic Center with Brian and Alan. I have such fond memories of traveling to Bristol (a 50 min drive from Rochester) to hike in the autumns with Coach Weston, ski at the top in the wintertime, or downhill on weekends with my high school friends. So it was disappointing to be disappointed in the Nordic Center, if you know what I mean. They only have a 1.2k loop groomed right now, and it's almost totally flat. The only other loop-1.3k- which isn't groomed right now- is only slightly more "hilly." Additionally, they advertise as being open until 10pm but actually they kicked us off the trails just after 9. One thing they do have going for them: the new yurt! It is warm and spacious! Sure beats the old summit ambiance: a snowbank in which to throw your skibags after hiking a mile from your car to the racecourse. Also, I can't overlook the fact that they have about a hundred giant snow cannons, so if the winter was to warm up like last year's, we'd all be flocking to Bristol to bail us out of our stunned snow-lessness. Final word: I only plan on going to Bristol if A. There's no snow anywhere closer, or B. I'm watching my little sister Anna compete in the league races.

Cryotherapy

I did next to nothing today... just homework and creating this new header, which still needs work. I am ridiculously tired and unmotivated, but it's been a rough week [with the shoulder thing] so I'm cool about taking it easy.

Speaking of which, my saving grace as far as shoulder pain has been my brand new robotic arm! (My mom got it for me on ebay this week.) I refer to him fondly as "Iceman" and we've gotten pretty close... we sleep together every night.

If you've ever had surgery you've probably used one... it's a cuff with tiny channels in it that's hooked up to a cooler full of ice water. The cuff goes around your shoulder, and when you turn it on, the ice water flows through the channels and "ices" your shoulder. Then you just crawl under lots of blankets, put on toasty socks, a hat, and mittens, and race to fall asleep before the cold sets in. Sort of uncomfortable, but it really works to reduce muscle spasming during the night. It also works to produce very "cold-related" dreams: so far this week, I've gone searching for polar bears, camping in the Arctic with no sleeping bag, and kayaking in San Diego when a snowstorm hits. I'm hoping tonight's will involve mountain climbing... Himalayas, maybe, but I'd settle for Alps... or even Rockies!